Tech golfers to vie for OVC Championship starting Thursday

Apr 25, 2012

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Tech men's golf team will
compete for the Ohio Valley Conference championship this week,
beginning with the opening round Thursday morning at GreyStone Golf
Club in Dickson, Tenn. The 54-hole tournament will crown a winner
Saturday from among nine teams, with the first group slated to
swing from the first tee at 8:30 a.m.

Senior Tyler Cassetty
will be the first Golden Eagle off the tee, scheduled for a 9:20
starting time in a threesome along withZack Butler of Eastern
Kentucky and Tucker Wallace from Austin Peay. Sophomore Mason Griffin is
next at 9:30, followed by senior Travis Ramsey at
9:40. Sophomore Greg Kitts has the
9:50 slot, while junior Lee Maxwell rounds
out the Tech lineup at 10 a.m.

The annual awards dinner will be held following the first round
of play, and will honor the All-OVC first-team and second-team
members as well as All-Newcomer Team and Freshman of the Year. The
OVC Player of the Year, Coach of the Year as well as All-Tournament
and Tournament MVP awards will be presented at the conclusion of
the championship.

Designed by PGA Tour pro Mark McCumber, GreyStone Golf Club offers
a great championship course and staff. Located in historic Dickson,
the golf course is a short drive from Nashville and is easily
accessible from throughout middle Tennessee. Opened in 1998,
GreyStone Golf Club is a public course that has hosted numerous
high profile events including PGA Tour qualifying, Senior PGA Tour
qualifying and the Tennessee State Open.

This marks the third year in a row that GreyStone has hosted the
OVC Men's and Women's Championships and the course will also host
the event next season. Last year Jacksonville State captured the
men's team title in a weather-shortened 36-hole event.

In its final year of reclassification to Division I SIUE is not
eligible for the OVC Golf Championships this season but are
eligible for individual honors. The Cougars will compete in the
event next season.

Hole-by-hole live results from each day of the championship can be
accessed through links at OVCSports.com. Jacksonville State claimed its third OVC men's
golf title a season ago doing so after Mother Nature cancelled the
final round of play. But the final 18 holes would likely not have
made a difference as the Gamecocks had a commanding 18-stroke lead
after 36 holes and had already established OVC Championship records
for team single round (280) and team two round scores (561) when
play was halted.

JSU's title was the first for the program since 2007 and marked
the fourth different school to win the event in the last four
seasons. For the first time in OVC history the individual race
ended in a three-way tie as Eastern Kentucky's Johan Eriksson and
Jacksonville State teammates Andres Schonbaum and Matthew Wallace
each finished at -5 and earned bids to the NCAA Regionals.

Individually, Eastern Illinois senior David
Lawrence shares the OVC lead in stroke average (72.4) with
Murray State's Patrick Newcomb, who has been named
OVC Golfer of the Week five times this year. Jacksonville State's
Tom Robson, EKU's Brian Fister
and EIU's Gino Parrodi are tied for third in the
league in stroke average at 73.0.

For Tech, Cassetty owns the low average during 2011-12 at 74.4
while earning a pair of Top 5 finishes in his 17 rounds of tourney
play. The other four Tech entries have all played 29 rounds in
tournament play this year, and Kitts leads that group with a 74.6
stroke average. Kitts owns three Top 10 finishes this year. Griffin
has averaged 75.9, followed by Ramsey at 76.0 and Maxwell at
76.5.

The Golden Eagles finished second among 10 schools -- the team's
highest showing of the year -- in the last tournament, the TSU Big
Blue Intercollegiate held April 16-17. A month earlier, Tech had a
third place finish in UT Martin's Grover Page Classic. Both of
those tournaments included a large number of OVC
opponents.